Method of making building foundations



A. T. LEVY March 14, 1939.

- METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING FOUNDATIONS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 15, 1936 II E A T. LEVY A 2,150,176

METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING FOUNDATIONS Filed Oct. 15, 1956 3 heet,2

March 14, 1939.

March 14, 1939. A. T. LEVY 2,150,176

METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING FOUNDATTONS Filed 0ct. 15, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ,47- TQ/QA/EV Patented Mar. 14, 1939 METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING FOUNDATIONS Austin T. Levy, Harrisville, R. I.

Application October 15, 1936, Serial No. 105,722

13 Claims.

This invention relates to a new method of making building foundations, and it has particular reference to the making of foundations for prefabricated buildings of the type disclosed in my Patent No. 2,104,874.

One of the objects of my invention is to improve and simplify the procedure in building a foundation for a house or other structure so that the time and the labor involved are notably reduced and the cost correspondingly lowered. By my improvements also a better foundation is provided because among other things, the floor beams, sills and other parts are more securely held in place by the foundation wall, which more specifically is a concrete wall embedding certain of the metal parts. By my invention it is made possible to interconnect the metal parts by operations readily carried out at the building site, and including simple welding operations, before the concrete form for the side wall is erected, so that the connections, in the absence of the form and side wall, can be made very conveniently and rapidly. The invention also has in view a new method of installing a fioor supporting member extending along the foundation wall parallel to the floor supporting beams. These and other objects of the invention will, however, appear more clearly hereinafter or will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a foundation as constructed by my new method;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the upper part of the foundation taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is a similar View taken on line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken at right angles to the column-supported sleeper, showing one stage in the procedure;

Fig. 5 is a similar view taken "at right angles to Figure 4, and

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of a corner portion of the wall form and the associated structural members.

In the present instance, I have shown for purposes of illustration a foundation structure of the type described in my above mentioned patent, but it will be understood that other structures can be built by my new method.

In the drawings I have shown so much of a foundation as supports three sides of a panel type wall. The foundation wall is indicated at A, and opposite reaches of this wall support the ends of floor beams. B supported intermediate of their ends by a sleeper C resting at spaced intervals on columns D. The sill members E are preferably of channel form and receive the lower ends of studs F and F which are bolted to the sills, and also receive the lower edges of wall forming panels disposed between said studs. ordinary wall studs and preferably comprise channel members connected back to back and adapted to receive the vertical edges of said wall The studs E are corner studs and include channel members at right angles to each other likewise adapted to receive the edges of such panels.

The sills are anchored to the concrete foundation wall A so that their channels face upwardly.

forming panels.

The studs F are The ordinary studs of a wall at right angles to andfastened thereto by anchor means such as hook bolts II, the upper ends of which extend through perforations in the plates and sill and are fastened thereto by inner and outer nuts 92.

Bolts ll extend down into the concrete of the wall and are embedded therein. The sill member is preferably spaced from the beam. ends, as shown. The lower parts of the beam ends are embedded in the concrete by an upwardly projecting concrete portion i3 forming a shoulder I4 against which the sill member is positioned.

In the walls parallel to the beams B, the ends of the sleeper C are embedded in the concrete of the oppositewalls at l5. each end of the sleeper and parallel to the floor beams 13 is a floor supporting member which I prefer to form as a channel it having upper and lower flanges, this member being preferably of substantially the same depth as the beams. This member is embedded in the concrete, the wall having the upwardly projecting portion I3 formed about the lower inner part of the channel and overlying its lower flange. with one of the wall studs, and at that point a connecting plate ll connects the sill with the sleeper and with channel iii, the plate ll having a portion interposed between the upper face of the sleeper and the lower face of the channel member IS and. welded to both of the same. This connecting plate also has a portion extending under the sill member and connected thereto by anchor bolts in the manner previously described.

Extending across The sleeper is in line These plates Where additional studs are employed in this wall, 55

additional plates I8 (Fig. 1) are connected as by Welding with the bottom face of the channel member and underlie the sill and are connected to the sill by anchor bolts as in the manner above described. At the corners of the building, the sills are inter-connected by connecting plates l8 which underlie the mitered sill ends and the end of the channel member l6 and are welded to the lower face of member 5. These plates l8 are fastened to the sills by anchor bolts H, as previously described, and by additional bolts II.

In building a foundation such as above described, the procedure may be as follows:

After the excavation for the foundation has been made, the supporting structure for the sleeper which comprises columns D is built. The columns may be formed or erected on a. concrete footing 19. The sleeper is then laid in position across the tops of the columns and fastened in place in any suitable manner, for example, by bolts 28 anchored in the concrete columns as shown. The beams are then laid in place across the sleeper and fastened thereto in an appropriate manner as by welding. Although the precise order of some steps is not material, the connecting plates of the sills may then be welded to the beam ends and the sill members fastened to the plates by the anchor bolts. At the side of the structure adjacent the end of the sleeper a connecting plate is welded to the sleeper end and the floor supporting channel is welded to said plate and the other plates welded to the bottom of the channel member at correct intervals. The sill member at that side is supported on the projecting portions of the plates and'fastened thereto by the anchor bolts. The sill members are interconnected at the corners by the corner plates having their depending bolts. It will, therefore, be understood that at this stage, the structure comprises the suitably supported sleeper carrying the beams, the channel member, the sill members and the depending anchor bolts. This structure can be erected in a rapid and con venient manner and proper location of the elements relatively to each other can be effected without exercise of special skill.

The next step is the erection of a Wall form such as shown in Figures 4, and 6. A concrete footing 2| for this form may have been provided at the same time that the footing E9 was provided. The form may be constructed of any appropriate material such as wood or metal. In the present instance I have shown a wooden form having side walls 22, uprights 23, and longitudinal outer and inner stringers 24 and 25, respectively, at the upper part of the form. The form is built up so as to have the relation to the structural members which is shown in the drawings.

At the side of the building to which the beam end extends, Fig. 4, the inner form Wall .and its stringer 25 conform to the beams, and members and 2? constitute a recessed part overlying the channel of the sill (so as to prevent the ingress of concrete) and closing off the sill at the front while preferably at the same time providing for the formation of a water table on the foundation wall. Members 26 and 21 may be conveniently applied to the outer form Wall as shown. For the purpose of further positioning the parts, tie-rods connect the beam ends with the form. In the present instance, tie-rods 28 have inner ends with hooks engaging holes (subsequently used for stud connecting bolts) in the ends of the beams and have outer ends passing through holes between outer uprights and through stringer 24. Nuts 29 on the ends of the tie-rods permit the necessary adjustment.

In a wall perpendicular to the sleeper, Fig. 5, the inner form wall conforms to and encloses the end of the sleeper. The provisions for covering the sill member, including the member 21, are as above described. In this case, however, the floor supporting channel member is connected at suitable intervals by means of tie-rods '28, 30 with the outer stringer 24. It will be observed that all around the building, spaces ,are left between the inner edges of the sill covering member 21 and the inner wall of the form through which the concrete may be poured. After the wall form has been built, the concrete is poured through these spaces, allowed to set, and the form then removed. It will be noted that in the case of a wall with which the floor supporting member is associated, Fig. 3, the concrete is poured so that it extends upwardly over said member to the level of the top of the sill, so as to embed the lower portion of said member. In the other walls, Fig. 2, the concrete comes. to the same level in such manner as to embed both the end of the sleeper C and the lower portion of the floor supporting channel IS.

The wall studs are connected to the sills by bolts 35 passing through the studs and the side walls of the sill. These bolts have solid heads 32 at their outer ends and at their inner ends are threaded into nuts 33. These bolts are placed in position in the sills before the concrete is poured so that the nuts will be embedded. At a later stage, the bolts are screwed out of the nuts, the studs inserted in the sill, and the bolts replaced so as to fasten the studs in the sill.

In forming the footings above described, proper leveling of the upper surface of the footing may be accomplished by driving into the ground at the bottom of the footing trough or cavity a longitudinal series of stakes or pins 34 and aligning the upper ends of the stakes in a horizontal plane. When the concrete of the footing is poured and formed, its upper surface is brought at ,all points into the same relation to the upper stake ends. For assuring proper lining up of the wall form on the footing 2|, a series of members such as nails 35 may be embedded in the concrete so as to project upwardly therefrom and serve as locating members for the form, one of the side walls of which is abutted against said members .as shown in Figure 4.

By my novel method of building foundations, the procedure is much simplified and expedited and, at the same time, the cost is lowered. Standard structural parts can be used and the various connecting operations can be readily performed at the site by labor which is not highly skilled. The sleeper and beam structure can be readily and quickly erected and the sill members connected thereto by simple operations so to be supported thereby during the pouring of the concrete of the walls which are to support the end of the sleeper and the ends of the beams. Usually the sleeper is mounted the same way at both ends and, of course, the sleeper may be divided into sections where a single piece would be too long for convenient handling. The employment of a cross member at the end of the sleeper is also of manifest advantage. Eventually this member is used to support the marginal portion of the floor, but during the process of erection, that is to say, before the concrete of the underlying wall is formed, it assists in carrying the sill at that side of the building.

The concrete form can be of simple inexpensive character, and by proceeding in the manner above described, the form can be readily positioned relatively to the structural members in an accurate manner. Also by proceeding in the manner described, the sills are protected from adhesion of concrete thereto in undesirable places.

While I have described herein in detail a method which has been used in building a structure of one type, it will be understood that the method can be successfully employed in the erection of buildings of other types, and that many modifications may be made in the character of the parts used and in the sequence of some steps and other procedural details without departing from the principles of my invention or the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a horizontal structural member so that its end is in a laterally projecting position, connecting a sill member to said end, and then forming a concrete wall which supports said sill member and embeds the end of said structural member.

2. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a horizontal structural member so that its end is in a laterally projecting position, connecting a sill member to said end, fastening an anchor member tov the sill member so that it depends therefrom, and then forming a concrete wall which embeds said anchor member and the end of said structural member.

3. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a horizontally disposed structural member so that its end is in a laterally projecting position, fastening a connecting plate to said end so that said plate is in a laterally projecting position, supporting a sill member on said plate, fastening the sill member to the plate, and then forming a concrete wall which embeds the plate and the end of the structural member.

4. The method of making building foundations which comprises suitably supporting from their intermediate portions a plurality of horizontal beams, connecting a sill member to the beam ends, and then forming an underlying concrete supporting wall for the beam ends and sill member.

5. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a plurality of beams so that their ends are in a projecting position, securing connecting plates to the beam ends, fastening the sill to the plates by anchors which project downwardly, and then forming a concrete wall which embeds said anchors.

6. The method of making building foundations which comprises providing a suitably supported sleeper so that one end is in projecting position, supporting cross beams on said sleeper so that their ends are in projecting position, connecting sill members to the beam ends and to the sleeper end respectively so that they are supported therefrom, and then forming a concrete foundation wall which supports the sills and embeds the ends of the beams and the end of the sleeper.

'7. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a sleeper so that one end is free, fastening a structural member to said end so that it is arranged perpendicularly thereto, and then forming a concrete wall which embeds the sleeper end and portions of said structural member.

8. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a sleeper so that its end is free, connecting a transverse structural member to the sleeper adjacent said end, fastening to said member at difierent points along its length a plurality of connecting members which project therefrom, attaching a sill member to said projecting members, and then forming an underlying concrete wall embedding the end of the sleeper and supporting the sill.

9. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a structural member so that its end is free, connecting a sill member to said end so that it is supported therefrom, erecting a wall form which encloses said end, tying said form to said end lengthwise of said structural member, and pouring concrete into said wall form toembed the free end of said structural member and support said sill member.

10. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting a structural member sothat its end is free, connecting to said end so that it is supported thereby a sill having an upwardly facing channel, erecting a wall form which covers said channel but provides a concrete space under the channel and adjacent the sides of the structural member, and then filling said space with concrete.

11. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting at a distance above the ground a plurality of sill members in substantially the relation which they are to cocup-y in the finished structure by steps which include the attachment of certain of said members to the free ends of beamssupported by an underlying sleeper and the attachment of another of said members to the frame structure adjacent the end of the sleeper, and then forming a concrete wall so that it supports the sill members from beneath and embeds the marginal portion of the frame by which said members are carried.

12. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting at a distance from the ground a plurality of sill members in substantially the relative locations which they are to occupy in the finished structure, and then forming a concrete wall under said sills by steps which include the formation of a footing, the placing of a series of upwardly projecting locating members along said footing, the erection of a wall form having a wall contacting said members to locate the form, and the pouring of concrete into said wall form to support said sill members.

13. The method of making building foundations which comprises supporting at a distance from the ground a plurality of sill members in substantially the relative locations which they are to occupy in the finished structure, and then forming a concrete wall under said sills by steps which include the formation of a footing trough or excavation in the ground below said sill members, the positioning in said trough of locating members whose upper ends are horizontally aligned, the pouring of a concrete footing, the leveling of the upper footing face with the aid of said locating members, the erection of a wall form on said footing, and the pouring of concrete into said wall form to support said sill members.

AUSTIN T. LEVY. 

